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Yost happy with Guthrie's first spring outing

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SURPRISE, Ariz. -- When Jeremy Guthrie became the last of the Royals rotation's front four to make a start in Spring Training, he did something that Wade Davis, James Shields and Ervin Santana did not do.

He gave up runs.

Two of them, in fact, in the first of his two innings of work against the Giants on Saturday. After two singles, Hector Sanchez's triple scored both runners.

"If I could've got the ball down, they'd probably have all been ground balls to somebody instead of base hits to the outfield," Guthrie said. "So that's a small adjustment, hopefully, to keep it down."

Guthrie threw 36 pitches, mostly fastballs, and 31 were for strikes, although, as he pointed out, too many of them were high and hittable.

"I was pleased with Guthrie's outing," manager Ned Yost said. "He got through it, the pitches looked sharp. He got a couple pitches up that they hit but, for the first time out, I was very pleased."

Two pitchers headed for the World Baseball Classic each pitched one perfect inning in the 9-5 win. Tim Collins (USA) struck out the side in the fifth and Kelvin Herrera (Dominican Republic) had a strikeout and two infield outs in the sixth. And Luis Mendoza (Mexico) worked two scoreless innings, giving up two hits with two strikeouts.